THe United States' Civil War Era: 1854-1877 

Overview

Nation's often claim "ownership" of events, people, groups, and ideas in history.  America has traditionally done this with the "US Civil War." But this conflict had a much broader context than the nation's borders.  For example, both the USA and CSA saw the importance of diplomacy and the impact other nations had on outcome of the conflict. Both individuals and groups from the waring parties acted outside of the country while others came from overseas to partake in the civil war.  Additionally, the conflict can be seen as a specific node in the broader and long standing system of trans-Atlantic slavery. Lastly, the US Civil War can be placed in a  broader theme of internal national struggle that was happening around the globe during the 19th century.

These examples, in turn, recognize the US Civil War as an event in World History. Moreover, a complete understanding of the event only happens when learned in a global context. Carl Guarneri in America in the World (2007) offers a useful comparative approach that, for example, notes that save for the Haitian revolution, all "New World slave societies...achieved emancipation peacefully." Similarity, in A Nation Among Nations (2006), Bender's chapter on the US Civil War explores "freedom" and "nation building" as ways to situate the event in world history.  Don Doyle's The Cause of all Nations (2015) is an exceptional exploration of how slavery, diplomacy, and and war intersected:

"When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863, he had broader aims than simply rallying a war-weary nation. Lincoln realized that the Civil War had taken on a wider significance -- that all of Europe and Latin America was watching to see whether the United States, a beleaguered model of democracy, would indeed "perish from the earth." 

Civil war itself is something nearly every nation has experienced.  Studying the conflict as more than an American crossroad better prepares students for the 21st century.